Elemental Fire (21 page)

“And I suppose your perception is
always spot on?” I demanded, glaring.

She smiled coldly at me. “As a
matter of fact, it is.”

Later, I might sit down and
search deep inside myself to see if what she said was in any way true, but at
the moment I refused to let her get to me.

“My mother, she was just a dream
giver, but you killed her.”

“What happened to your mother’s a
mystery,” she said, her tone unreadable. “That’s the truth. I’ve always been
blamed, but no one’s ever asked me.”

“I’m asking you now,” I said,
digging my fingernails into my palms to keep from yelling in frustration.

“I didn’t kill your mother,” she
said, still in the same tone. “There was no reason. If I had found her, don’t
you think I’d’ve killed you too?”

My mouth fell open and stayed
that way. I blinked several times, taking in what she had just said. Did she
have a point?

“Maybe you didn’t know where I
was,” I argued desperately, but my words sounded hollow even to my own ears.
“Maybe. . . .” I trailed off. Maybe a lot of things.

Malle shook her head. “See, this
is what I mean about not knowing yourself properly. You decided I’m guilty
without the slightest bit of evidence. Now you’re going to hold onto that
notion for dear life, because it’s the one you’re comfortable with.”

“Who else would have killed her?”
I cried, pounding my fists against my thighs. “Who else had something to gain?”

Malle waved off my outburst.
“Don’t get upset with me, child. The spats of paranormals aren’t something I
bother to think about.”

“What do you think about?”

She smiled thinly. “Ah, that’s
too many questions. I believe I’ve answered enough. Now, it’s your turn. Do you
know where the Mirror Arcane is?”

I tried, truly I did, to keep a
straight face. This was probably why Trafton thought it was a bad idea for me
to see Malle, because there was no way I could hide the fear in my eyes when
she looked at me and asked that question. I didn’t have to say a word. She
nodded knowingly.

“I thought as much. Don’t worry.
Once Vale has her hands on it you won’t even know it’s gone.”

“No!” I cried, unable to keep a
handle on my emotions.

Her smile got bigger. I cried out
again and again, pounding my fists against my thighs in frustration. My hands
started to ache, and then bleed. All the while I stared into her bottomless
black eyes.

At first my hands throbbed and I
felt blood under my fingernails, but then, all of a sudden, as the black depths
of her eyes grew, my hands were hitting something soft. It took me a long time
to look down and realize that the blackness I was looking at was my own room at
Public and what I was hitting was not my thighs, but the sides of my bed.

Sweat drenched my clothes and my
hair was plastered to the side of my face. I threw the covers off, stuffed my
feet into a pair of dark blue slippers, grabbed a large cardigan and raced up
to the library. Sigil had some questions to answer.

Not bothering with any light,
figuring I would just light one of the sconces when I got there, I padded
softly up the stairs. Astra was creepy at night. I had asked Lough if there’d
been news of Mrs. Swan and he had paled and shook his head.

“No news,” he muttered. “She’s
been missing for a long time. Lots of paranormals are missing now and presumed.
. . .”

I held my breath.

“Missing,” he finished lamely.

The door to the library gave its
now familiar squeak as I pushed it open. I liked the feeling of the rough wood
under my hands. Everything else in Astra was of high quality and polished, but
for some reason this door into the gates of learning was rough and unfinished,
and I liked it that way.

“Who’s there?” a voice cried from
the darkness. “I’ll only speak to the elemental. Damn it, maybe I shouldn’t
have said that.” It was Sigil’s conflicted voice coming from the depths of the
stacks.

“Don’t worry,” I called out.
“It’s the elemental.”

Sigil lit one of the lanterns for
me and came floating out of the darkness. There was always an initial prick of
shock when I saw the ghost. He was not solid, he was more like a cloud that,
given the right wind conditions, could be blown away. His hat was askew and he
had to pause to put his glasses on properly. Even in the dim light I could see
that his hands had a slight tremor.

“Proper young ladies are in bed
at this time of night,” he scolded me, trying to wipe his not-solid glasses off
on his not-solid shirttail. I decided it was simply the motion he found
comforting, because his glasses could no longer get more or less dirty.

“When I meet a proper young lady
I’ll be sure to tell her,” I said dryly. The library was cold, so I left the
door open. The first time I had come to the library I had noticed a piping
little stove in one corner, surrounded by plush and sunken chairs that looked
so comfortable I’d probably never get up again if I ever sat down in one of
them.

“What is it I can help you with?”
Sigil said, continuing to scrub maniacally at his glasses.

“Three things,” I explained,
ticking each off on a finger. “First, I need a favor. Second, I need to know if
you know anything about the death of Grace Lancing. And third, I’m curious to
know why you chose to become a ghost instead of passing on. This does not seem
fun.” I waved my hand to encompass the dark attic.

“Ah,” he said. “Let’s deal with
the favor last. How’s your book supply?” He wandered toward the shelves.

I laughed. My room was now strewn
with books. Between that reading and my reading for class I was falling asleep
at my desk every night. “Good,” I said curtly.

Sigil bobbed his head several
times. “Alright, well just let me know. I’m keeping a pile out for you.” He
waved his hand and I saw not one but three piles of books tottering on top of
each other. I gave an inward sigh, but out loud I thanked him.

“Grace Lancing murder?” he said.
“That’s your mother?”

I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah,
Malle said she didn’t kill her. I always thought she had.”

“Right, well, maybe it was just
one of the hellhounds.” Sigil paused, his eyes growing wide. “Cynthia Malle?
The president of Public? The most impressive darkness mage in generations?”

“Yeah, well, you’re behind the
times,” I muttered darkly. “She’s half-demon and all evil.”

“Oh,” said Sigil, fluttering his
eyelids. “I knew that. I was a professor here once, you know. You could see
that she didn’t have a kind bone in her body from a mile away, but that doesn’t
change the fact that she was the kind of student that a professor only sees
once in his lifetime.”

It was strange to hear Sigil
speak of Cynthia Malle back in her student days, when she was nothing more than
an ambitious undergraduate. The murder of her family by a wild band of pixies
had changed her into what she became later. Or at least, that’s how the story
went. According to Lisabelle it was a tipping point. Malle had a lot of
darkness, but maybe if her family hadn’t died she would have kept hold of the
light. It was what Sip and I worried about for Lisabelle. If something happened
to either of us . . . or even Lough or Risper, who knows what Lisabelle would
do.

“What did you teach?”

Sigil’s eyes lit up. “I taught
advanced pyrotechnics. Fascinating stuff.”

“I have a friend who would like
you,” I said, thinking Lisabelle would love to talk to a professor of fire.

Sigil bobbed his head. “If you
introduce me I will talk to any friend of yours.”

“Great, so back to Grace
Lancing?”

He shook his head. “It didn’t
happen long ago, correct?”

“Correct,” I said. Most of the
time I tried hard not to think about my mother, but many times when I closed my
eyes I saw her smiling. There were too many memories that just jumbled together
and made me want to cry, but being here this semester had forced me to confront
some of the questions that had nagged at me for years.

“No,” he said, his tone
thoughtful. “I’m afraid I do not. I was already here and the library was
already closed off. I saw no one.” He sighed and zipped away from me a little.
“Are you sure you don’t want more books?”

“I’m sure,” I said grimly. It
looked like I’d just have to do more research to confirm Malle’s claim.

“And you said there was something
else?” Sigil asked. Around the edges of the covered windows I could see dawn
peeking through. If I stayed up here much longer there’d be no point in trying
to sleep again, and I hadn’t even seen Keller.

“There are important artifacts in
the ballroom,” I said, starting slowly. I hadn’t been sure if I wanted to tell
Sigil exactly what Vale would attempt to steal, but in the end I had decided
not to. The less anyone knew the better. Besides, his being in the ballroom
would be enough. “I was hoping you’d watch over it while I perform in Tactical
tonight.”

Of course, that prompted a
question about what Tactical was, and I was forced to give a lengthy
explanation. Sigil thought it sounded fabulous and found six books for me on
the subject.

“You know,” I said, “some people
like to learn by doing, not, like, by reading.”

Sigil shook his head. “Never
heard of such nonsense. Anyway, I cannot do it. My apologies.”

“Huh?” I said, dumbfounded. I had
expected him to say yes without question.

“Book?” Sigil had gone to the
shelves and was now ruffling through large tomes that, judging by the dust
clouds he raised up, hadn’t been touched in years.

“NO,” I cried in frustration,
“Sigil, you have to help me! The whole school is going to be down at the woods.
I can’t leave Astra without knowing that there’s someone here to protect it.”

“Have one of your friends come
through the tunnel and protect Astra,” Sigil suggested, busying himself by
pretending to sweep dust off a shelf.

I had thought of that. Lough
could come through the stream and keep an eye on things, but if the Baxter
brothers or Vale found Lough they would kill him. Sigil, on the other hand, was
already dead, damage done.

“Please Sigil,” I begged. “Don’t
you want to leave the library?”

Sigil gasped as if I’d offended his
mother. “Certainly not. Why do you think I chose this?”

When I continued to look shocked,
he nodded sagely. “Yes, that’s right. I chose this. I could have gone beyond,
but I didn’t. Instead, I am here. I have something I need to do and I’m waiting
to do it. I promised.” He stuck out his lower lip and watched me closely.

“Sigil,” I said, my hands
involuntarily reaching out to take his shoulders before I remembered that I
couldn’t actually touch him. “You’re speaking gibberish.”

“I won’t leave,” he muttered.
“The idea is nonsense. I can’t leave. I will not.”

I took a deep breath and ordered
my heart rate to slow. “This thing you promised,” I said, and Sigil looked up
at me from under his lashes. “Is it happening in the library?”

Sigil pursed his lips. “Maybe.”

“Exactly,” I said. “You don’t
know where it’s happening. And when it happens, whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll
know. The Astra ballroom isn’t far away. Just spend the evening there. If you
have to come back to the library I promise I’ll understand.” I actually had no
intention of understanding anything. Sigil had to protect the Mirror Arcane.

Sigil took a deep breath while I
stood stock still.

“The Astra ballroom is pretty,”
said Sigil thoughtfully. “No books, of course.”

“I’ll bring a book down for you,”
I told him. “You can read all night.”

“Unless I have to fight,” said
Sigil. “What makes you think I’m any good at it?”

“My friend told me about ghosts,”
I said. “Because you’re so rare you’re hard to fight. NO one really knows what
to do and you’ve been a ghost for a long time. I’m sure you know lots of
tricks.”

If Sigil could have blushed, I
congratulated myself that he would be doing so now. “Well,” he muttered
modestly. “If you put it like that. Oh, no, this is tomorrow?” he cried, his
whole demeanor suddenly changing.

“Yes,” I said, my heart sinking.
What now?

“You will return for me this
evening? When it is time? I don’t think I’ll go down by myself.”

“I’ll return for you before I
leave for Tactical,” I confirmed.

Sigil nodded. “Alright. Go away now.
I have lots of reading to do.”

I nearly cried with relief. I
should’ve known Sigil would want to read.

“Maybe I will take a book then,”
I said, and was rewarded by his beaming smile. He grabbed a book off the
massive stack and handed it to me. “Until tonight,” he said. As I left the
tower I looked at the title.

“The Secrets of Astra Uncovered:
Raging Fire, Falling Water.”

I sighed. Now THIS might be
useful.